If I Never See Your Face Again
by museicality
Summary: Summary: A collection of drabbles for Team Underpants-Dom and Evin. Drabble prompts are from lyrics from "If I Never See Your Face Again" by Maroon 5. Originally posted for Goldenlake's SMACKDOWN challenge.  Dom and Evin centric.
1. As The Summer Fades

Title: As The Summer Fades

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 131

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1A

Summary: "Now as the summer fades I let you slip away": The summer brings things with it and when it leaves, sometimes those things do too. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

Golden rays of lazy afternoon sunshine are fading, now, and they seem to be taking the sunny smiles of a certain Rider Commander with them.

Full-bellied laughter had retreated, leaving behind a bark of a laugh shared in passing. Water fights had been replaced by late nights, and not fun ones, at that; it was becoming routine to find Evin, surrounded by reports, face down on his desk well after midnight. Sarcasm festered into remarks that actually left biting cuts across the conversation, and grins had to be shared across the practice yard, if then.

Dom wondered, as he watched heated August fade into desks, papers, and the closed door in front of him, if he had seen this coming.

It just goes to prove that all that glitters isn't gold.


	2. It Makes You Burn To Learn

Title: It Makes You Burn to Learn

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 295

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "It makes you burn to learn you're not the only one": This is not what he expected to find when he returned. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

It wasn't like they didn't understand each other's schedules.

Time is irrelevant, when you're in the Riders, unless you're heading out; then time is of the essence. Long days followed longer nights, and eventually they blurred together and up was down and the road home was the only path he could see anymore.

The only thing that kept him sane through the whole bit, though others outside would tell you the definition was tenuous at best, were his fellow Riders. His saddle siblings, his partners, his shield mates and the only people who understood life inside and out the way he did.

Who cares, he thought, when they picked on each other, when they got too close, when someone's pack fell into the mud and then clothing was shared so they all looked like ruffians to match the way they felt.

Who cares, when it was all about whoever could get in the lake fastest and no one cared about anything but cool, clear water closing over their hot heads.

Who cares, when sleep caught them sitting up and they'd wake up in a pile the next morning besides the remnants of the previous night's fire.

Who cares?

Evin pushed through the doors, feet slowing as he approached a familiar hall, and he pushed just enough through that familiar door to see that apparently, someone cares very much.

It starts like a fire starts, one bright spark that [i]_hurts_[/i] but then it dims for a moment.

Then he hears the whispers, the promises and the passion that stokes them and it grows, inside him, it grows and it hurts and across the room, he doesn't notice Evin standing in the doorway.

He steps back in the heat of fury, and in the hallway he [i]_burns._[/i]


	3. I'd Let You Be

Title: I'd Let You Be

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 174

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I'd Let You Be If You'd Put Down Your Blazing Gun": Evin feels like Dom is argumentative, Dom feels that Evin should listen once in a while (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

"You're not listening to me."

"Why should I? What makes you think that you deserve-"

"Stop it. Shut up and listen,"

"Fine then. What is it?"

"You have it all wrong, I-"

"[i]_I_[/i] have it wrong?"

"Just shut up for a moment! It was only a kiss-"

"Yes, only a kiss, just like all the others?"

"Now you just sound jealous, Dom."

"So what if I am? You Players never think about others, do you?"

"If you would just [i]_shut up_[/i]for [i]_one_[/i] minute!"

"So you can what, kiss away the pain? I don't think so."

"Listen, be this way. I can't take it anymore." Evin threw up his hands.

"Fine, run along to the next person in line; see if I care," Dom shot back.

Evin wheeled on him. "If you would just stop picking fights every damned day, then-"

"If there were nothing to fight about, I'd stop, now wouldn't I?"

Evin grabbed Dom's shirt and pulled him close so their faces were only inches apart.

"You want me? You've got me."


	4. Somewhere Else, Faraway

Title: Somewhere Else, Faraway

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 267

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Now you go somewhere else, faraway, I don't know if I will find you": He contemplates love across distance. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

All of the love ballades I've ever heard despair over a love lost. Love has gone, left them, heading for the sunset or the greener grass, and the songs lament how many the miles that separate what could have been fate.

Such is the way of star-crossed nonsense, of hogwash and pretty little nothings and poetic drivel that dries and shrivels the ears and the heart.

I should know; I've heard it all before and more, grew up on it, dined it, refined it, spoke it with clear words and a spun sugar tongue until I more than half believed it.

Ah, perfection; wing'd away on soaring wind, flight achieved. I, alone, sit here and wonder at the spaces between the stars, where love once burned. Now only cold remains, the color of a fire long dead, reflect to me the heart that once beat.

Or perhaps,

Oh distance, what a master are you, who gives delight in land between work and play, while with the same hand draws my lady away.

No, I have not tasted of this wine, of fantastical language, for a time. I have no more drunken, misbegotten ideas, no lusts or longings as the ballades I once sang.

No, for I know a colder truth; I've met a harder mistress. Worse than longing across distance, worse than wandering though I wonder still that I might not find you. I fear how on that day when you go away, it won't be across the country, riding with the Own.

No, on that day your eyes will cut across and stare straight on through.


	5. Right Behind You

Title: Right Behind You

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 353

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Can't believe I'm right behind you": Midwinter is the best time of year... if you're winning. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

Midwinter was the best time of year.

If you were winning.

Currently, Dom was winning, and all was well. The Own had spent days pranking the Riders, and the score had just been upped again, just in time for Longnight and the finest pranks that Tortall's defenders had to offer.

Truly, Midwinter was merry, especially when watching a whole new Rider Group, this one the sixth of the morning, discover the new icy patch in front of their barracks exactly the way the others had.

The door was locked and barred against intruders on the road to revenge, so no one outside could possibly have heard the choked laughter that Dom tried to stifle as a certain Rider Commander went flying, feet out from under him and lanky arms flailing, but Dom could have sworn that Evin heard him or perhaps saw him hiding, safe and warm.

For safety's sake, the Own traveled by pairs or squads for the rest of the day, unwilling to relinquish their rank to the tricky little Rider Groups they had just thoroughly trounced.

Midwinter was the best time of year, if you were winning. But Mithros help you if you were an eligible bachelor of distinctive heritage and ennobled family in possession of a fine physique and scheming [s]friends[/s] acquaintances. Because mothers across the realm also shared your opinions, and flocked to Midwinter parties just to meet you.

Dom thought he had gotten away clean.

The first sign was the tingling down his back. But his were the only footsteps tip-toe-ing away from the party and a Knight Commander who wouldn't take well his abandonment.

The second sign was the heavy feeling of eyes on his back.

Followed by the hair on his arms and the back of his neck raising.

And his pulse quickening.

And the realization that he, Domitan of Masbolle, was very, very alone during the climax of a prank [i]crusade [/i].

He never heard the footsteps behind him.

Hands wrapped around his eyes

His heart raced

Jumping out of his skin as he was pulled back flush against his stalker.

"Gotcha," Evin murmured.


	6. You Keep Me Coming Back For More

Title: You Keep Me Coming Back For More

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 165

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Cause you keep me coming back for more": Addiction: (noun) a habit, compulsion, dependence, need or obsession. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

Dom had seen men addicted before.

Addicted to the drink, searching for answers in the bottom of every mug and even they were not enough to quench the thirst.

Addicted to sweet salts, burning and smelling and tasting them over and over again until they burnt away all other smells and tastes and left only the tang of indifference.

Addicted to the attentions of the flower girls downtown, losing themselves in a new embrace, a new touch, a new promise every night when there were no more eyes to watch them drown.

Dom had seen men addicted before.

Now he avoided looking in his mirror.

When did it become more than a series of one-night flings? When did he find the answers, when did the burning end, or would he finally lose himself and wake up drowning?

He went willingly to the open arms of his addiction, lost in the answers and promises that looked like blonde hair and blue eyes and tan, tan skin.


	7. A Little Better

Title: A Little Better

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 257

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "And I feel a little better than I did before": He's not unbreakable, but he's also not alone. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

He's been the strongest he's ever had to be and given more than was ever willing to give and now he's caving in and it's lonely at the top.

How do you pick up the pieces, the ones made to fit together just as seamlessly as puzzle pieces, when there are more missing than there are left?

And oh, how broken the remnant is-

and the realization brings tears in torrents.

"Hey, hey…"

The voice isn't screaming in pain, physical or emotional, and Evin leans into it because anything is more solid than he is, now.

Dom realizes he's dealing with a drowning man and he's the only rescuer to be seen and so he stays, though he would've, anyway.

"They- they, ambush—should've sent [i]more[/i]—and, and, Nightbreath—shattered…all me… my fault, [i]all my fault[/i]-"

It was more than he could bear and he couldn't stop it, just couldn't hold on any longer, and he crumpled, falling as far as Dom's strong arms would let him.

Dom waited for the worst to be let out, for words wouldn't, couldn't heal this pain, couldn't fix the remaining handful of the Seventh Rider Group that lay unconscious under his cousin's care. Slowly, the hysterical frenzy died and it was only Evin, sitting there on the fence behind the farthest building, gasping in air.

"-'m sorry."

"No." Dom gave him a shake. "No. Don't be sorry because you care. Never be sorry because you care."

Blue eyes lifted tiredly to meet blue eyes and surely this too was drowning.


	8. If I Never See Your Face Again

Title: If I Never See Your Face Again

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 196

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "If I never see your face again": Sometimes it's not the words, but the actions that say the most. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

Evin made a point not to watch the Own ride out. He turned his back and ignored the rippling fanfare, the impatient stomps of warhorse's hooves on packed dirt.

Behind him, spotless blue uniform after spotless blue uniform passed in rank and file, shining horseflesh in every carefully burnished color carrying them away from the capital yet again.

He hoped that the road south was still awash with the mud that had been churned up in the last rain, the mud that had coated him and Group Askew on their way home, not that [i]they[/i] minded it at all.

One man's badge of honor was another man's filth.

He hoped that perhaps this would be the tour where certain people with blue eyes in the position of squad leader would learn the difference between being prissy and actually standing up to their reputations.

Dust from the road was kicked up by the hooves of the retreating warhorses, but Evin didn't mind, not the way that [i]some[/i] people would. Road dust, hot sun, and old leather were home. Forget parties and clean, matching uniforms and pedigrees; give him a good pony and a day's ride any day.


	9. You Move So Well

Title: You Move So Well

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 137

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Sometimes you move so well it's hard not to give in": Evin gives in. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

It's not something he can deny any longer; it's inescapable and irreplaceable and he'll be damned if he shows [i]just how much[/i] it affects him.

He wasn't about to wax eloquent on the seat of the man in the saddle, on the click of his boots as he struts across the mess, on the casual hand through his hair and it's far too much to handle.

And that's before his head comes up and their eyes meet.

It's not the color; well, not [i]just[/i] the color; it's the sparkle and the wit and the questions and the answers they contain, the words and whispers they conceal and the way they know you're looking at the sway of his stride when he walks across your vision.

And Evin wonders, does he know everything he does is a dare?


	10. Where You End

Title: Where You End

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 145

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I'm lost, I can't tell where you end and I begin": He knows where it started, but he wonders where it is going. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

It started with hands; hands on the reins, hands on the rail.

Hands that were waiting.

Hands that touched once, a brush, hands that came back again, that tangled in shirts and pulled and hands that went to hair, to face, to skin, skin, skin.

Hands everywhere, everything, touching gently, grasping desperately, welcoming and teasing and grappling.

Hands the same as always, hands calloused by work and wind and sun, hands that served the red rearing horse and the silver crown and sword until they came back, different and had to explore new skin, new scars, new again.

Hands that travelled furthest in the most familiar place and pushed hay out of the way and hands that didn't know where one ended anymore, lost.

Hands that wondered without words if this would be how it ended, hands and hands and touching and feeling and fighting.


	11. I Wonder

Title: I Wonder…

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 279

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I wonder if he's half the lover that I am": He's present, and he's somewhere else, and Miri wonders about this. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

It was their thing, laying back under the stars at the beginning of the summer.

They could look and look for hours, pointing out constellations until they were making them up and they both knew it.

It was the first time they'd been out this year, for the Own and the Riders had been out on tour for the most of the spring, and Evin had forgotten how much he missed sitting out here with Miri. He wondered if it was because he hadn't missed anything, anything at all, for as long as they'd been out.

Still, this night sky looked like the night sky he had been living under for the past few weeks, and he couldn't help but remember that company, strong arms and blue eyes that twinkled, reflecting the stars. The nights were more pleasant than the days.

Skirmishes, raids, brown uniforms and blue uniforms mixed in the frenzy, ponies and warhorses driving forward, back to back with someone, any one, and it always seemed to be Dom, solid Dom, who covered him when his flanks were unguarded and whose squad held the front lines with the Seventeenth and who understood with barely a glance and whose silence spoke volumes and whose eyes still looked like stars even out here in the day.

Miri spoke up. "So…"

And all the memory images in his head tumbled away and he faced her.

"…sorry. A lot on my mind…"

She looked him over, took in the shirt that she couldn't recognize (at least not when

he was wearing it) and wondered just a little.

"…I guess tha- …never mind."

If it was true, then it didn't matter, anyway.


	12. Believe Me

Title: Believe Me

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 153

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Baby, baby, please believe me": Evin gains belief and loses it with the same sentence. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

He laughed at himself for waiting, but when the Riders rode back into Corus, he was always watching to see if it was Evin at the head. Dom didn't really see himself as the fading flower type, hanging on another's cloak, especially not Evin's, but when evening came and he still sat alone, he found himself drawn out of his rooms.

The door was open, just slightly, when he got there, with light spilling invitingly into the hall, but he paused a moment.

There were voices.

He waited.

"Baby, please—Miri, [i]please,[/i] believe me,"

"—then stay here. Stay with me."

A sigh.

"Of course."

Dom leaned back, head hitting the wall. He slid down, knees too weak to hold him up.

Two quick footsteps, and murmurs; the shiver of fabric across skin and soft sounds fell through the open door into the hall.

He guessed the door was supposed to be closed.


	13. Don't Leave Me Behind

Title: Take it Easy

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 181

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Take me down but take it easy": Dom asks the impossible of Evin Larse. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

It was the sun in his eyes, and he felt it like a punch to the side, and then he was airborne and falling…

Around him, horses were rearing, and he wanted to roll out of the way but the moment he did, it [i]burned[/i] and he fell back.

Someone was screaming.

It might be him.

The harsh scrape of metal on metal rang out nearby and someone hit the ground near him.

"Dom, Dom, can you hear me?"

He turned his head. Evin. "Wha-?"

"Dammit!" Evin swore, seeing the arrow protruding from Dom's left side. "Gods [i]damn[/i] Lord Maggot. Dom, we have to get you out of here."

Dom's eyes were heavy, and there was so much noise. "…'t worry. 'm fine."

Alarmed, Evin grabbed his hand. "Dom! Snap out of it."

"…take it easy, 's my arm…"

Evin growled as a faint smile flickered across Dom's lips. "I don't know who you think you are, Domitan of Masbolle, but even I can't take it easy in moments like this. And shut your mouth, because this is going to hurt."


	14. Take It Easy

Title: Take it Easy

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 181

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Take me down but take it easy": Dom asks the impossible of Evin Larse. (Part of "If I Never See Your Face Again" prompt cycle; lyrics by Maroon 5.)

It was the sun in his eyes, and he felt it like a punch to the side, and then he was airborne and falling…

Around him, horses were rearing, and he wanted to roll out of the way but the moment he did, it [i]burned[/i] and he fell back.

Someone was screaming.

It might be him.

The harsh scrape of metal on metal rang out nearby and someone hit the ground near him.

"Dom, Dom, can you hear me?"

He turned his head. Evin. "Wha-?"

"Dammit!" Evin swore, seeing the arrow protruding from Dom's left side. "Gods [i]damn[/i] Lord Maggot. Dom, we have to get you out of here."

Dom's eyes were heavy, and there was so much noise. "…'t worry. 'm fine."

Alarmed, Evin grabbed his hand. "Dom! Snap out of it."

"…take it easy, 's my arm…"

Evin growled as a faint smile flickered across Dom's lips. "I don't know who you think you are, Domitan of Masbolle, but even I can't take it easy in moments like this. And shut your mouth, because this is going to hurt."


End file.
